Issue #3
February 22, 2006
IN THIS ISSUE:
  • Highly effective low-cost (and co-cost) marketing
  • Do you have a question for us?
  • Show an employer how your client can improve his bottom line
  • Everything you need to know about growing and running your business
  • Share your success stories, tips, and ideas
  • 2 ways to profit with an e-resume
PROFIT BOOSTER: Highly Effective Low-Cost (and No-Cost) Marketing

Moonlighting with your resume business while you get it off the ground? Don't have a huge budget to spend on marketing your services? You can, in fact, get lots of exposure - and clients - for virtually nothing. You need only look to some everyday contacts you may not have thought of before.

(In fact, even if you've been writing resumes for years, you're losing out if you're not tapping into these potentially lucrative resources.)

Consider the following opportunities that some of our most successful resume writers have taken advantage of. As it turns out, several of them use these outlets as their primary means of marketing their resume-writing businesses:

  1. Join service clubs (a Rotary or Kiwanis Club, for instance). Members often speak or and make presentations. You could give a speech to your fellow members about current job-market trends that young people and recent grads face. Or develop a program geared to older members who wish to earn money and be productive past the usual "retirement age."
  2. Get involved in church groups and activities. Offer to do resumes for a high school youth group (for summer or after-school jobs) and watch what happens when their parents and relatives see what you can do.
  3. Become an active member of the Parent-Teacher Association at your child's school. In this arena, you will meet lots of moms - and perhaps some dads - who left the work force while their children were young ... and now want to work part-time or full-time. This is a group of people who definitely need the skills of a great resume writer to help them position that "gap" time and also bring them up to speed on how the resume business works these days. You could invite them to a short presentation about the changing job-search world, give 10 pointers about writing good resumes ... and see how many clients this leads to.
  4. Volunteer. A great way to get your name out there as a professional resume writer is to donate a number of resumes to residents of shelters or similar facilities.

Many resume writers do all of their business through this savvy type of marketing - and what they save in terms of the cost of "traditional" marketing makes a big difference on the bottom line!

Plus, you should never underestimate the value of the satisfaction you get by being able to "give back" while you're doing a job you enjoy.

LET US ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS:

Please keep in touch – and allow us to help you succeed. Do you have a question about how to get your resume business started, how to grow your business, or how something "really works"? By all means – ask. In future issues we'll address your biggest concerns and lay out answers to help you succeed – fast. Contact us at: resumewritingsuccess@awaionline.com

CONCRETE AND QUANTIFIABLE: SHOW AN EMPLOYER
HOW YOUR CLIENT CAN HELP MAKE - OR SAVE - HIM MONEY
By Julien Sharp

Always remember: A resume is an advertisement designed to get your client an interview.

When I was an HR Director for a medium-sized company, I wore a lot of hats ... and one of those hats was the recruiting and hiring of employees. I looked at hundreds of resumes every year.

I could very quickly narrow down what jobseekers sent me into two categories - resumes, and what I called "employment diaries."

The resumes I liked.

The "diaries" ... well, I put them on the "no" pile pretty quickly. That's because they were either long, rambling tomes on just about everything the candidate had done in his employment career (almost back to the paper route or lemonade stand) ... or they included what amounted to a series of "job descriptions."

In other words, the "diaries" told me what candidates did at their previous jobs ... but not how they did!

Example 1

Look at this excerpt from a resume I got for a Sr. Marketing Director position:

Responsibilities:

  • Set up and drive sales and marketing activity
  • Business development with both existing and new clients
  • Generate business through new leads
  • Oversee and drive other sales professionals

I want to know: Drive sales and marketing activity to what level? What volume of business was developed? How much business was generated through new leads, and in what timeframe?

Example 2

This one, though more detailed than the first, still lists only tasks. It doesn't give any indication of job performance.

Professional Responsibilities:

  • Develop and administer the marketing plans and budgets directed toward Insurance Brokerages/Brokers
  • Initiate the company's involvement in various networks, including coordinating business development and marketing activities via these relationships
  • Develop and administer marketing database that includes client and prospect information, mailing list applications, access to financial reports, etc.
  • Develop marketing programs for sales, lead generation, and Web campaign, following marketing plan and budget constraints
  • Communicate details of marketing programs to Business Development Managers, Operations, and other departments
  • Review and evaluate market research to use in forecasting future marketing needs

I want to know: What type of forecasts did this candidate make, and how did they affect the company's bottom line?

Example 3

Now, take a look at this snippet from yet a third candidate:

  • Transitioned organization from 44% growth to 112% growth in 2001 ($7 million to over $14 million)
  • Expanded distributor base by over 55% to increase market penetration and facilitate market launch of new product services
  • Provided strong organizational leadership in key account sales and business development, resulting in a significant gain in employee morale and productivity
  • Delivered 48% growth within less than one year through development of a multinational customer base
  • Currently facilitating market introduction of new sales group with first year revenue projections at over $2 million

This one is much better. And that's because it focuses not on what the candidate does, but on how well he does it.

The resumes you write for your clients must strongly demonstrate that these potential employees will help fulfill an employer's needs - usually by helping him make money or by helping him save money (depending on the position).

In other words, you want to be sure that the resumes you write clearly and concisely demonstrate that your candidate will help a potential employer's business be successful.

This isn't an idea that's likely to be obvious to your client. So be sure you're drawing out of him the fodder you need to write a resume that will work. If he feeds you a lot of "tasks," go back to him and get the kind of concrete, quantifiable information that you know will work much better.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Julien Sharp has been working with resumes for 20 years – writing, screening, and evaluating them. She's a member of the American Writers & Artists Inc. (AWAI) Board of Advisors and one of the creators of AWAI's Resume Program. For more information about this money-making blueprint or independence and financial freedom, click here: http://www.myresumebiz.com/rwss]

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Highly Recommended

Starting and running a successful writing business is a strategic, methodical, big-picture undertaking. You’re no longer an employee... you’re the boss. Are you running your business the right way - by maximizing your efficiency and profits and minimizing your stress and mistakes?

Get the answers to the hundreds of questions and concerns commonly asked in specific, step-by-step details: http://www.awaionline.com/getanswers

SEND US YOUR GOOD NEWS, TIPS AND IDEAS

We love to hear about your successes. If you have good news to share – how you landed a new client, made the transition to full-time resume writer, or even a technique you've found works wonders, please tell us at: resumewritingsuccess@awaionline.com

FROM THE TECHNOLOGY DESK:
2 Ways to Profit With an eResume

An eResume is a resume that is delivered electronically (i.e. sent in an email or "posted" in a job search service on the Internet). In a word, it's paperless.

eResumes can come in many formats.

The most basic is a text resume. Unformatted, and very plain to the eye, it is nonetheless useful to have for the "cut and paste" resume submission systems that many companies have on their websites.

Also, a plain text format is free of viruses when pasted directly into an email (not sent as an attachment) ... something that many smaller businesses prefer.

Offer your clients two formats - one formatted (with bullets, font variations, borders, etc.) and one in plain text. This gives them more flexibility in submitting their resume to various employers and job search engines.

And it's something you can charge a premium for. It's a valuable service!

COMING NEXT ISSUE

In the next issue of Resume Writer Success Strategies, learn how your small business can achieve big results from marketing through word of mouth.

* ABOUT RESUME WRITER SUCCESS STRATEGIES *

Resume Writer Success Strategies is a FREE weekly newsletter from the American Writers & Artists Inc., available to AWAI members and friends.

© 2006 American Writers & Artists Inc.

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